BYU in the Bush

As tradition follows for the BYU Namibia Field Study, all of the girls are invited over to a homestead of some women and allowed to dress up in traditional garb. For the Himba, this encompasses the red okre butter that they apply to their skin called “otjize” as well as goat skin skirts and skin head dresses. Then there are the woven belts, necklaces, and bracelets. We purchased some of the otjize rocks in Opuwo and brought them to start grinding. Marahoraguapi helped me grind it into a fine red powder. This stuff stains EVERYTHING and we wanted to get to be as close to a real native woman so we wore our bras and shorts. I was the first to get covered in the red paste and those women put it on thick—especially on my face. Not gonna lie, I looked really scary with my bright green eyes and white teeth against a shocking deep red skin. Our translators came along with us and Nicki in particular said that she couldn’t even look at me for a while because I was so freaky looking!...